Siga Wot?

A FB friend requested my Siga Wot recipe. It is an Ethiopian Beef Stew type dish. It is wonderfully fragrant and spicy. It is traditionally served on injera - an Ethiopian bread (think sourdough pancake).
Cooking in our house is multi-cultural, Texas BBQ, Irish meats, potatoes and yes sometimes cabbage. We all love Mexican food and I try to add it to special occasions now with Elmer staying with us most of the time.
Ethiopian food made it’s way onto our table when Abate and Fantu joined us 3½ years ago. It has been a learning process to familiarize myself with the dishes and techniques used to prepare the many variations of a Wot. Homemade Injera is still a work in progress. I do keep trying though. Now I’m not much at following recipes after the first time or so that I make something. I tend to tweak them a bit. I have found with many of the Ethiopian dishes the recipes aren’t anything near to what we have when we eat out or what the kids remember. So that always leads to adjustments. Fantu and I also talk about how she learned to cook some of them and we create from there. This is our version of Siga Wot that was an all-around hit with both them and Elmer (he loves Ethiopian food) on Sunday. Abate said it was just like he remembers and is close to what we get at A Taste of Ethiopia restaurant.
Siga Wot
1 -1.5 lbs. lean stew beef
1 small finely chopped onion (I have to chop onions really fine as Elmer can’t stand them in recognizable chunks).
1-2 tsp. minced garlic
2 tbs. Berbere (an Ethiopian spice mix sold dry or sometimes as a paste – I use the dry)
½ teaspoon Spanish paprika (a hot paprika powder)
½ teaspoon ground ginger or 2 tsp. minced fresh ginger
2 chopped roma tomatoes
Vegetable oil ¼ - ½ cup or so, (enough to cover the onions)
In a heavy bottom pan (I prefer a dutch oven) with a lid add the onions and garlic, cook over a medium heat until translucent, about 10 minutes add oil just to cover the onions. Add the Berbere , stir in well and cook on medium to low heat until the aroma changes to a slightly sweeter one – this can take 20 – 30 minutes. I was told by an Ethiopian woman that runs one of the restaurants in Austin to just cook, cook, cook it. This can take a bit of practice to get the berbere cooked just right but you’ll know when you get it because the aroma becomes so fragrant. At this point add the paprika, ginger, chopped tomatoes and beef. Cook for about 10 more minutes then add about a ¼- ½ cup of water. Reduce heat to low and let simmer until the beef is tender and the sauce has thickened. You could at this point transfer to a Crockpot and let it slow cook for several hours but I find an hour simmering on the stove works quite nicely. Serve on Injera. A hint if you’d like some Mesir Wot to serve with this, increase slightly the ingredients up to adding the beef – remove a few tablespoons worth and place into a saucepan, add lentils and water to cover by an inch and let simmer until done.